Machines such as, for example, haul trucks, drills, loaders, conveyors, and other types of heavy equipment are commonly used in underground mining applications to perform a variety of tasks. Unlike above-ground mining applications, underground mining sites do not have access to GPS (Global Positioning System) signals, yet knowledge of a machine's on-site location is desirable, for example, with respect to the site geography.
In some underground mining applications, Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging; also referred to as light radar) positioning systems may be used to track the location of a machine with respect to a worksite. Lidar systems scan portions of the surrounding environment in proximity of the machine. Each Lidar scan captures data representative of the shape of the scanned portion of the worksite. The captured data is then compared to references for a known map of the worksite, and the positioning system infers the position of the machine based on the reference that correlates with the captured data. The positioning system is able to track the movement of the machine by subsequently capturing a further Lidar scan, and similarly comparing this captured data with the mapped references.
In some applications, however, it may be difficult for Lidar systems to determine the location of a machine based solely on correlating the captured data with the mapped references. For instance, the captured data may represent shapes that are not unique to a specific location. Additionally, comparing the captured data with the map can be computationally intensive, causing processing systems to be slow in finding a matching reference. Further, there may be objects at the worksite that do not have a permanent location or that have been newly added. Such objects may cause complications for Lidar systems that are trying to match shapes in the worksite environment to a pre-existing map if those shapes are not included in the pre-existing map. This may result in the Lidar system losing track of the position of the machine, requiring manual intervention by an operator on the machine, who must identify the machine's position and re-seed the positioning system.
In some applications, it may be desirable to monitor mobile objects other than mobile machines. For example, it may be desirable to determine the position of some other mobile device in an underground environment.
The disclosed positioning system is directed to overcoming or at least ameliorating one or more of the problems set forth above.